29 December 2016 | Orion’s Belt & Sword

Orion’s Belt or the Belt of Orion, also known as the Three Kings or Three Sisters, is an asterism in the constellation Orion. It consists of the three bright stars Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka.

Looking for Orion’s Belt in the night sky is the easiest way to locate Orion in the sky. The stars are more or less evenly spaced in a straight line, and so can be visualized as the belt of the hunter’s clothing. They are best visible in the early night sky during the Northern Winter/Southern Summer, in particular the month of January at around 9.00 pm.

Cicero and Germanicus the translators of Aratus’s Phaenomena, expressed it as ensis, Latin for “sword”. Also, Arabic astronomers called it Saif al Jabbār, the Sword of the Giant. In China, It was called 伐, Punishment, and subordinated to Sieu of Shen （參）. In Japan, It is called Ko-mitsu-boshi （小三星）, “Little Three Stars”. In Finland, it is called Kalevanmiekka (Kaleva‘s sword).